Russian author: US alleged war on ISIS not exactly war

AhlulBayt News Agency - Comparison of the US alleged fight on Daesh (ISIS) with the Vietnam War, as US Republican Senator John McCain recently did, is incorrect, says a Russian author, noting the fight against the Takfiris is “not exactly war.”

The hawkish senator sent a letter to Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Tuesday, saying, “As a young military officer, I bore witness to the failed policy of gradual escalation that ultimately led to our nation’s defeat in the Vietnam War.”

The Arizona senator who serves as the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee warned that the “grudging incrementalism in the war against ISIL risks another slow, grinding failure for our nation.”

Russian author and journalist Dmitry Zolotarev, however, said on Wednesday that McCain’s remarks make him “smile” and mean he is “confused.”

“I have to say that the war against Daesh is not exactly a war… (But) a complex of different conflicts,” he said.

The US and some of its allies have been reportedly carrying out air raids against what they say are ISIL positions in Iraq since August 2014. Since last September, some members of have also been pounding purported ISIL positions inside Syria without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate.

Many factions are engaged in the war, including Daesh, the al-Qaeda affiliate al-Nusra Front, the Syrian and Iraqi armies as well as Kurdish forces, which yields it further complicated.

Apart from that, Zolotarev noted that McCain has himself been part of “masterminding the idea of Daesh” as well as “supporting and financing” the Takfiri terrorist group.

 Daesh militants, who were initially trained by the CIA in Jordan in 2012 to destabilize the Syrian government, now control large parts of Iraq and Syria, where they are engaged in crimes against humanity.




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